Yesterday, 03:27 PM | #1 |
Junior Member
Posts: 3
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jul 2024
Device: Boox TUC
|
Setting Up a Calibre Library on an SD Card
I've decided to, finally, get around to downloading and organizing the collection of e-book bundles I've purchased from Humble and I'd like to use Calibre to help with that. I also think I know what I'd like the final result to look like, but I'm not sure how to get there and I'm hoping someone on here can help me. Here's what I'm trying to do:
Reference Books -> Subject -->Sub-catagory Graphics Novels ->Manga -->Series ->Western Comics -->Publisher --->Series/Event/Character ---->Sub-Series Novels ->LN -->Series ->Western Novels -->Author --->Series Now, I know Calibre relies on tags and filtering, rather than a folder structure, and it's pretty easy to see why. Unfortunately, that only works if you have access to the tag and filter functionality, and I don't think Moon+ Reader does. Without it, reverting to author->title is pretty cumbersome. To my knowledge, the main ways to deal with this are to either A) Export your library, which allows for an arbitrary folder structure, or B) Remotely connect to Calibre to handle sorting and retrieving the books. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, neither of these solutions really work for me. A requires maintaining two separate copies of the library, and duplicating all of the books, while B) seems to rely on a remote connection to my computer and, possibly, also duplicating the books. Is there another way around this dilemma or something I'm missing? To be clear, I don't have a problem with Calibre maintaining it's own folder structure and using the same kind of tag/filtering on my TUC would be an improvement, but I don't know if that's possible. Is there a way to get Moon+ Reader to present my books in a more accessibly structure, without relying on the folders (possibly based on a file Calibre hands it or meta data) or is there a better app I should be using? Also, any other tips on setting up this kind of mobile library or dealing with Humble would be appreciated. |
Yesterday, 04:33 PM | #2 | |
the rook, bossing Never.
Posts: 11,912
Karma: 87663613
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Ireland
Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper11
|
Quote:
There is a Calibre "Save to Disk" and that should be used with the SD card for the Ereader if not connecting it via USB. I connect my phones, tablets, ereaders etc via USB direct to Calibre and manage them. I backup the Calibre "system" including the private ebook files with rsync when Calibre is not running. I've also tested the OPDS via Content Server and WiFi on one tablet running Pocketbook, but USB is simpler. With Save to Disk, you can use templates to have any filestructure you want. But any ereader App (Moonreader, KOReader) that only uses a file system interface is like 1960s computing and gets very awkward with more than a few hundred titles. I found KOReader nearly unusable with 6,500. Also file organisation can't do collections (files would have to be duplicated) or series or multiple author titles easily. You can't change how Calibre stores the imported ebooks, because those are ONLY for Calibre, they are part of the database. I have about 7,000 ebooks and I'm happy with how Calibre works. Some people may have 60,000 or many more (maybe they can read half a dozen books a day or will live for 100s of years?). The SD card has to have an export from the library, it's not the library, and you can use template to have the structure you want for Moonreader. Last edited by Quoth; Yesterday at 04:41 PM. |
|
Yesterday, 04:47 PM | #3 |
the rook, bossing Never.
Posts: 11,912
Karma: 87663613
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Ireland
Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper11
|
Yes, Moonreader isn't the best. Lithium and Pocketbook apps are far better (even free Pocketbook, uncheck 2nd box at install time). If the ebook needs tweaks, fix it in Calibre Editor. You can check an added ebook quickly with Calibre viewer and fix something faster than fiddling with over-ride settings in an ereader app.
Calibre is Library, device manager, viewer, editor, search system (inc full text search), ebook creator from docx and conversion program. The ebook files, once added are "private", hence being able to treat a directory/folder/disk as a device for "Send"/export/save. |
Yesterday, 05:58 PM | #4 | ||||
Junior Member
Posts: 3
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jul 2024
Device: Boox TUC
|
Quote:
I'm also aware of the "Save to Disk" feature; it's what I was referencing when I mentioned the export feature. (Sorry for the mistake.) The problem with handling it this way is it, functionally, doubles the size of my library, which I'd rather not do for what I hope are obvious reasons. Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Lithium seems to only read EPUBs or, at least, they don't bother to list compatibility with anything else. And, while Pocketbook does have compatibility with all of the file formats I need (epub, pdf, cbr, cbz, probably a few other random ones), it doesn't seem to have any meaningful tools for actually viewing your library. As far as I can tell, if you aren't viewing it by file structure, you're limited to filtering by file format, looking at manually created collections, or free-form text search. It can, apparently, sort by series, but you can't browse by series or see a list of series. I'm certainly not seeing any sort of tag filtering. |
||||
Today, 12:51 AM | #5 | ||
Bibliophagist
Posts: 37,708
Karma: 150186866
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Vancouver
Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos
|
Quote:
Quote:
As for your worries about two libraries, the calibre library would be attached to your main computer. The SD card would be inserted into the computer and any new ebooks could be copied to the SD card. No need to have two copies on your computer. You could also look at KOReader since it can use the calibre metadata file to search. You could set up your SD card as an device using Preferences => Tweaks => search for folder. Add the path to your SD card folder that will be used (i.e. F:/mylibrary where the SD card is mounted as drive F: and you want to use the mylibrary folder for your books. Update the ebooks on the card and move it back to your Boox. |
||
Today, 02:17 AM | #6 | ||||
Junior Member
Posts: 3
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jul 2024
Device: Boox TUC
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
|
||||
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Setting the initial library for Calibre Portable to load | haertig | Calibre | 6 | 11-20-2022 02:21 AM |
How to use my Calibre library on SD card | MarcDS | Calibre Companion | 5 | 06-18-2021 07:22 AM |
Want to copy entire calibre library to sd card | OldLincoln | Library Management | 9 | 08-31-2020 02:56 PM |
Browsing a Calibre library on the SD card | altruizine | Calibre Companion | 3 | 11-05-2015 04:26 AM |
AppleScript for setting Tags in calibre library | paul55391 | Library Management | 2 | 06-15-2014 10:48 AM |